Top Chef ™
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Cod and Shrimp Bomba with Saffron Aioli
Cod and Shrimp Bomba with Saffron Aioli. Smoked Roe, Piri Piri and Pickles
Corwin and Kat both carried out their 'stage' at Mercado, a Portuguese restaurant in Toronto.
Restaurant owner: "Miguel is going to be making you the bacalhau a bras. Cod fish is so popular in Portugal."
Corwin: "Salt cod. I'm like, instantly, this is the product we need to go with."
Kat: "Piri is a classic Portuguese hot sauce. I love hot sauce. We make gallons and gallons of hot sauce at Highly Likely for us. Portuguese Piri Piri. It's always on the table. The wheels are definitely starting to turn on what I think I'd like to make as a dish."
Kat (talking to Corwin): "What I'm imagining would be delicious is that fried potato bacalao, but turning it into almost like an arancini. "
Corwin: "Yes. That's literally what I wanted to do. I think we make a croquette where we do, like, cooked potato so it has that binder."
Corwin and Kat talking together while shopping: "There's no salt cod. Do we want to get just regular cod? You know, cook it, flake it, add it in, fold it in? I think that'll be good. We don't have enough time to cure it. Salt cod takes five to seven days minimum. What makes salt cod great is instead of it being soft, it has a firmer texture, so it flakes better when you cook it. But I'm going to go get as much cod as we can. We're going to make the best of it here."
Cooking on the day: "Didn't fall apart, which means it has enough breading. But what do you think? Do you think it needs flour or a little bit of panko? I'm going to add it with some flour. "
Kat: "Corwin tests one. It's a little bit wet."
Corwin: "I typically freeze mine overnight. Yeah, not worried."
Kat: "He adds a bit more flour just to bind it a little bit more. And try to be careful. You don't want to overwork them."
Judges
"I do like the big pickles."
"Salt cod has, like, such a unique and interesting flavor. So I was wondering, like, will they be able to get that without the salt cod? I agree with you. Why tell that story if you don't have saltcod? Right? Don't mention it."
"I'm really loving the flavors of Kat and Corwin's dish."
"The texture of this bomba, to me is a little off. The wetness. Yeah, the texture. Salt cod wouldn't have made this happen. "
"This is a nice little street food dish. Yeah, it's fine. You're not gonna think much about it, but this is a competition, double elimination. I think you gotta come a little harder than this."
